Roots and Stems and Dogwood Bolts 



177 



ester, farm forester, or buyer of walnut 

 veneer logs. 



Very often the landowner has to be 

 reminded that the plants of the for- 

 est all plants, not just the trees are 

 composed of many parts into which 

 nature has placed special properties or 

 substances. The key to successful utili- 

 zation of these many plants is to deter- 

 mine to what economic uses their spe- 

 cial attributes are best adapted for the 

 greatest return. A man also needs to 

 know the markets and the best means 

 of producing and harvesting the prod- 

 ucts for continuous crops. The owner 

 of large tracts can concentrate on one 

 or two products, like sawlogs and pulp- 

 wood, but the owner of a small 

 property often must supplement the 

 income from his main product with the 

 income from several minor products. 



The best sources of information are 

 the State and Federal agricultural 

 agencies and the trade associations, be- 

 cause they are in the business of dis- 

 covering new and improved uses of 

 forest products. 



Roots and stems of plants may yield 

 food, fiber, fuel, drugs, dyes, gums and 

 resins, and wood specialties. 



Leaves may contain oils and dyes or 

 special fibers for special uses. They 

 may have decorative value, or they may 

 be ideal for composting. 



The bark may be a source of cork, 

 tannins, drugs, fiber, fuel. 



Flowers, besides their decorative 

 value, may also produce oils. 



The fruits are important for food or 

 oils. They might be marketed for their 

 seed or for use as decorations. 



The forest-land owner, therefore, 

 loses nothing by taking the time to find 

 out the full possibilities of his land, but 

 he stands to lose present and future 

 values if he makes a hasty move. 



Planning for maximum use of a 

 wooded area requires, first, a complete 

 inventory, not only of the trees and 

 woody plants but also of the small herbs 

 and other vegetation that form the 

 forest understory. 



Few are the woodland products that 

 do not have some utility. 



802062 49 13 



FROM THE ROOTS come quite a num- 

 ber of products. 



Recently I received a request from a 

 New Jersey florist for a supply of Os- 

 munda fern, a fairly common plant in 

 the swamps and wet woods of the East 

 and Northeast. The florist was seeking 

 a source of the plant because he wanted 

 to use its roots in the making of com- 

 post for growing orchids. 



Ginseng, another plant of the forest 

 floor, occurs in shady, well-drained lo- 

 cations in the hardwood forests from 

 Maine to Minnesota and southward 

 into the mountains of the Garolinas 

 and Georgia. An export trade in gin- 

 seng has existed in this country for 

 more than a century; the average an- 

 nual value of the ginseng root for the 

 Oriental market is about one million 

 dollars. Ginseng is now cultivated, but 

 the wild product found in the wood- 

 lands is highly favored in the trade and 

 brings the highest prices. Forest plant- 

 ings of ginseng, while slower growing 

 than those in artificial shade, are less 

 expensive to establish and require less 

 attention. 



Sassafras root finds a limited sale at 

 roadside stands to persons to whom the 

 use of a tonic of sassafras tea is tradi- 

 tional. This is a pin-money product. 

 But both the root and the stem are 

 used for the extraction of oils for the 

 flavoring of root beers and some pro- 

 prietary medicines. The oil is used also 

 to produce an artificial "heliotrope" 

 for the manufacture of perfumes. 



The pitch-laden wood of the roots 

 of some of the southern pines, because 

 of their high inflammability, reach the 

 market as "lighter knots" or "lighter" 

 wood. Sure to blaze when they are ex- 

 posed to flame, they are ideal for use 

 in fireplaces. 



Stumps and roots of the resinous 

 species have also found a market by 

 the ton in the South. A special process 

 has been developed for extracting the 

 resin. And owners of "worked out" tur- 

 pentine stands have been able to real- 

 ize a profit from clearing out the dead 

 and dying trees. 



During the Second World War, the 



